Sharon Bowles supports better protection for South East consumers

4.02.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 26th Sep 2007

Liberal Democrat MEP for South East England, Sharon Bowles, has today given her support to the Europe-wide "MADE IN" campaign, which works for greater transparency and consumer protection by calling for goods imported into the EU to display the country in which they were made. Sharon Bowles will be among over one-hundred MEPs attending an event at the European Parliament in Strasbourg this afternoon (Wednesday, 26 September 2007), where MEPs will stand in a line to spell out the words "M-A-D-E I-N" with special campaign umbrellas.

Speaking ahead of today's event, Sharon Bowles said, "This campaign is about enabling consumers to make an informed choice about the goods they buy. It's also about encouraging manufacturers and retailers to be more responsible and transparent about where they source their products from."

Clearly marking the country of origin on products imported into the EU from third countries is seen as an effective way of ensuring that consumers have better information about the goods that they buy, as well as ensuring that industry exercises greater responsibility over where and how it obtains some of our most famous and popular products.

Sharon Bowles added, "The MADE IN initiative is a positive development as it will allow British consumers to make a better judgement about the environmental impact of the goods that they buy, in terms of the distances travelled and the carbon emissions generated to reach our shops.

I'm delighted that several organisations representing European businesses have already signed up to the MADE IN campaign. It shows that there's a real appetite for responsible manufacturing and retailing across Europe, from which British consumers can only benefit."